Once a player has unlocked every pet, skill, rune, insignia and weapon upgrade, the only things left on which to use Balthazar faction are Tournament Tokens and Zaishen Keys.

Faction is recorded per account and can only be kept up to a limited cap, initially 10,000 faction. Once the cap is met the account stops earning faction. The cap may be increased by gaining ranks in the Gladiator, Hero, Champion, Commander or Codex title tracks.

You can see how much faction you have towards your cap by viewing the Hero panel. By hovering the mouse pointer over the faction bar you can see how much faction you have earned — this total does not include any faction you may have earned while at the faction cap.

The faction earned from these arenas is capped: only 2,000 faction may be earned from the Training Arenas and/or Zaishen Challenge combined, and only 6,000 faction (only 4,000 if 2,000 has already been earned from Training Arenas and/or Zaishen Challenge) from the Zaishen Elite each 24 hours.

"You have reached perfection in the eyes of Balthazar" is the note you receive after reaching your total unspent faction cap. (You do not receive any message for reaching the daily cap from Training Arena, Zaishen Challenge or Zaishen Elite.)

After intense player feedback, faction was added to the game in June 2005 to allow PvP players to unlock skills without engaging in PvE play. Many game updates have since altered the rate and the sources for earning faction.